it's a bird, it's a plane, it's--
UNPOPULAR FANNISH OPINIONS!
What it comes down to is that making a lot of fandomsecrets is only so therapeutic.
Plus, this post is much quicker.
I do not mean this as an attack on anyone who disagrees with me. My tone is blunt and I'm phrasing these as facts, but they are my opinions, no more, no less. I freely admit that. I've made this list because I've seen few or no people who vocally share these opinions.
It's possible that some of these opinions are not as unpopular as I think. I would actually like to hear that they are not as unpopular as I think.
Consider yourself warned that I *am* being unusually blunt with my opinions--and probably will continue to be so in the comments--so if you are easily offended, you might want to skip this entry.
No spoilers for any of the series.
CSI:NY
1) Angell is not interesting.
2) Current clusterfuck of a storyline aside, the writers have NEVER known what to do with Lindsay, so she's been mishandled since the moment she joined the cast. Plus, from 2.14 "Stuck on You" on, she's been increasingly passive aggressive. It's reached the point where she's just unpalatable, and I *love* flawed characters. But weirdly passive aggressive is *all* that's left of her character anymore.
3) Mac's authority issues are reaching legendary proportions, but that's intersting and good because the show does not structure itself to make it look like Mac's actions are entirely right and/or justified. They've been careful not to demonize Sinclair (or Gerrard for that matter). Hence, interesting.
It's fantastic that they let the lead fuck up from time to time.
4) Angell is not interesting. I'm sorry, but I need to say it twice. Maybe if I could see any unique personality to her, I'd feel differently. I don't dislike her; I just don't give a fuck. I don't understand why so many people are in love with her. I've tried to understand, but I just don't.
To each her own, I guess.
4.5) I *am* going to be really fucking annoyed if their way of developing her as a character is to have her date Flack. Because 1) insulting to women and 2) that worked so well for Lindsay. They're *not* doing that yet, but they've carefully left the possibility open.
5) Mac's authority issues and the slowly emerging clusterfuck that is Stella's current arc are by far the most interesting things going on in the show this season, and I am fucking puzzled and downright irritated that I haven't seen anyone talking about them in either fic or meta.
6) Mac and Stella are *not* in love, period. Mac and Stella are not going to get married and have babies, ever. It's not in their characters. Mac and Stella *do* love each other, yes, but that love is a deep bond of friendship, of partners, and it does not fit the romantic mold. It never will fit the romantic mold even if their relationship did evolve into having a sexual dynamic.
(All of that is why Mac and Stella's relationship is one of the best and most interesting friendships on tv.)
7) Fuck anyone who is still talking shit about Stella. It's beyond old.
She's smart. She's confident. She's good at her job. She's also human, imperfect, by turns funny, passionate, scared, angry--all the things you want in a good character. If you have a problem with her, you should be examining your assumptions about female characters and your attitude toward women. Especially if you yourself are female.
And yes Stella's seriously screwing up this season, but if it were, say, Danny screwing up in the same manner? People would be all over it. In fact, where the hell is all the fic and meta about her current arc? (gen, het, femslash--I'm not picky)
Leverage
1) Nate's issues are the most interesting thing about the show. This is doubly so because the writers and Timothy Hutton are handling it with subtlety. He is a miserable son of a bitch right now, and he's doing it to himself. He is angry, he is pushing people away, and he is good at it. Also, he is not some woobie that needs someone to make it all better. If someone tried to do that, he'd make them fucking sorry.
2) Sophie and Nate's complicated relationship is the second most interesting thing in the show. They already had a personal relationship when he brought her into this. Nate cares about her, but he's also too busy running his life into the ground--and having her around is probably a part of that. Sophie cares about him, but he is, again, a miserable son of a bitch right now, so their relationship is uncomfortable.
That feels true. That feels right, and that is interesting.
3) Sophie is awesome, and I'm fucking irritated by people who actively dislike her. She's smart, she's good at her job, she's dealing with Nate as well as possible. She cares about him but she has enough self-respect not to be drawn all the way in. She cares about him so she's not going to sit by and let him do whatever he wants. But *none* of this is having a real impact on how well she does her job.
Plus, Gina Bellman is rather fantastic. (And she's gorgeous. And yes, I am shallow at times.)
I believe this is part of the same fucked up phenomenon that makes people not like Stella.
*sigh* Fandom does have a misogynistic undercurrent, just like it has a racist undercurrent. That's a symptom of the world we live in, and it doesn't mean that people with those assumptions are OMG EVIL. It means that they should take a step back and try to examine their assumptions.
4) Eliot is (by far) the least interesting character. I don't dislike him; I just have no use for him. To each her own, but I do *not* understand why everyone loves him.
5) Eliot's hair is ugly, doesn't suit Christian Kane's face at all, and is also completely out of character for a guy who beats people up for a living. Frankly, you do *not* want hair that is going to get in your face and interfere with your field of vision when you are, again, beating people up for a living.
6) Yes, Parker's adorable, but there's a serious risk of her becoming a charicature of herself. We need to see more of her elite breaking-and-entering skills; we need to see more of her being *good* at her particular skill set and taking joy in it. I already miss that moment when we're introduced to her and she's so happy to be rapelling down the building. She has hidden her personal identity underneath her professional identity, and so she is most herself when she's being good at her job.
Regardless, we need to see her change in response to being a part of the team. I'm not saying she should grow towards *normal* because this is Parker we're talking about, just that there needs to be more going on here than the fact that she's... socially awkward doesn't quite cover it, but you know what I mean.
7) Hardison is (by far) the sanest character on the show. By. Far. And hell yes, I love him for that.
8) If a certain comm refers to Hardison as a "hot chocolate stud" again, I am going to have to hurt somebody.
NCIS
1) I don't think Gibbs is interesting. Period. A good part of this is that within the show itself, the narrative structure and the subtler aspects of the directing, all of it continually presents Gibbs as Right. Even when he makes a mistake, even when (objectively) he's crossed the line... he never gets called on it. Not really. Occasionally there's lip service but nothing more. He doesn't change. He has the same set of reactions to almost everything. *shrug* I'm not interested.
2) Abby has become a charicature of herself. I have next to no interest in her because of that.
3) The show is fun, but it's not particularly well-written. It doesn't do subtlety. When they get narratively ambitious there are plot holes big enough to drive a truck through.
4) For years I had next to no interest in Tony, but I just noticed that Michael Weatherly has started doing some incredibly subtle stuff that plays against the episode-to-episode selective amnesia common to a lot of shows. (For example, he was rightfully angry at Gibbs after Cloak and Dagger. He was also angry at Ziva, to a lesser extent, because she there was one piece of dialogue where she crossed the line.) Plus, in the office interplay where they're all picking on one another, he's drawing the short end of the stick more and more often.
4.5) If I were a writer on the show, I'd make it so #4 was leading to something, because I see Tony hitting a breaking point in the near future, but I don't have a any real faith in the writers on this show (see #3) so I'm not expecting anything. And if it happens, I don't expect it to be well done.
5) I've never disliked Ziva or Jen Shepard even a little bit. Both are strong. Both are flawed. Ziva does cross the line sometimes, but I like some ugliness in a character. Plus, I can't count how many times Gibbs or Tony has crossed the line, and most people let them get away with it. Yes, they misplayed Jen's storyarc in S4, but that's part of how they misplayed the *entire* S4 storyarc, which goes back to #3. (I also thought the way in which wrote Jen out of the show was bullshit.)
6) I don't dislike Kate, but I've never missed her either.
7) Regular and/or re-ocurring character body count. Female: Kate, Jen, Paula Cassidy, Agent Lee. Male: Agent Pacci (1.19) and Ari (bad guy). Correct me if I'm wrong.
Does anyone else see something wrong with that picture?
SGA
1) It was not a well-written show at all. We'd be here all day if I started to list all the huge missed opportunities. It's enough to make me wonder if the writers are actually familiar with science fiction.
(And that's not even getting in to the problems it had with race and gender, because those are fairly popular opinions.)
2) Joe Flanigan is a good actor. Sure not the best, but he's not bad by any means. He thought about Sheppard as a character--even if TPTB didn't let him do much with that--and he consistantly tried to play against the heroic womanizing type they tried to fit Sheppard into. I respect him for that.
3) The flip side of this is that David Hewlett is not that great of an actor. Don't get me wrong, I like him and he's not bad. He's got some fearless and fantastic comedic timing. He can make any amount of poor technobabble sound rather good and plausible. But I don't think he tries to go deep into the character's thought process. At least, I haven't seen him do it on SGA and they sure as hell threw McKay enough character stuff. --- edit --- on second thought, it's not that Hewlett is not that great, it's that he's been lazy as fuck with McKay.
What it comes down to is that making a lot of fandomsecrets is only so therapeutic.
Plus, this post is much quicker.
I do not mean this as an attack on anyone who disagrees with me. My tone is blunt and I'm phrasing these as facts, but they are my opinions, no more, no less. I freely admit that. I've made this list because I've seen few or no people who vocally share these opinions.
It's possible that some of these opinions are not as unpopular as I think. I would actually like to hear that they are not as unpopular as I think.
Consider yourself warned that I *am* being unusually blunt with my opinions--and probably will continue to be so in the comments--so if you are easily offended, you might want to skip this entry.
No spoilers for any of the series.
CSI:NY
1) Angell is not interesting.
2) Current clusterfuck of a storyline aside, the writers have NEVER known what to do with Lindsay, so she's been mishandled since the moment she joined the cast. Plus, from 2.14 "Stuck on You" on, she's been increasingly passive aggressive. It's reached the point where she's just unpalatable, and I *love* flawed characters. But weirdly passive aggressive is *all* that's left of her character anymore.
3) Mac's authority issues are reaching legendary proportions, but that's intersting and good because the show does not structure itself to make it look like Mac's actions are entirely right and/or justified. They've been careful not to demonize Sinclair (or Gerrard for that matter). Hence, interesting.
It's fantastic that they let the lead fuck up from time to time.
4) Angell is not interesting. I'm sorry, but I need to say it twice. Maybe if I could see any unique personality to her, I'd feel differently. I don't dislike her; I just don't give a fuck. I don't understand why so many people are in love with her. I've tried to understand, but I just don't.
To each her own, I guess.
4.5) I *am* going to be really fucking annoyed if their way of developing her as a character is to have her date Flack. Because 1) insulting to women and 2) that worked so well for Lindsay. They're *not* doing that yet, but they've carefully left the possibility open.
5) Mac's authority issues and the slowly emerging clusterfuck that is Stella's current arc are by far the most interesting things going on in the show this season, and I am fucking puzzled and downright irritated that I haven't seen anyone talking about them in either fic or meta.
6) Mac and Stella are *not* in love, period. Mac and Stella are not going to get married and have babies, ever. It's not in their characters. Mac and Stella *do* love each other, yes, but that love is a deep bond of friendship, of partners, and it does not fit the romantic mold. It never will fit the romantic mold even if their relationship did evolve into having a sexual dynamic.
(All of that is why Mac and Stella's relationship is one of the best and most interesting friendships on tv.)
7) Fuck anyone who is still talking shit about Stella. It's beyond old.
She's smart. She's confident. She's good at her job. She's also human, imperfect, by turns funny, passionate, scared, angry--all the things you want in a good character. If you have a problem with her, you should be examining your assumptions about female characters and your attitude toward women. Especially if you yourself are female.
And yes Stella's seriously screwing up this season, but if it were, say, Danny screwing up in the same manner? People would be all over it. In fact, where the hell is all the fic and meta about her current arc? (gen, het, femslash--I'm not picky)
Leverage
1) Nate's issues are the most interesting thing about the show. This is doubly so because the writers and Timothy Hutton are handling it with subtlety. He is a miserable son of a bitch right now, and he's doing it to himself. He is angry, he is pushing people away, and he is good at it. Also, he is not some woobie that needs someone to make it all better. If someone tried to do that, he'd make them fucking sorry.
2) Sophie and Nate's complicated relationship is the second most interesting thing in the show. They already had a personal relationship when he brought her into this. Nate cares about her, but he's also too busy running his life into the ground--and having her around is probably a part of that. Sophie cares about him, but he is, again, a miserable son of a bitch right now, so their relationship is uncomfortable.
That feels true. That feels right, and that is interesting.
3) Sophie is awesome, and I'm fucking irritated by people who actively dislike her. She's smart, she's good at her job, she's dealing with Nate as well as possible. She cares about him but she has enough self-respect not to be drawn all the way in. She cares about him so she's not going to sit by and let him do whatever he wants. But *none* of this is having a real impact on how well she does her job.
Plus, Gina Bellman is rather fantastic. (And she's gorgeous. And yes, I am shallow at times.)
I believe this is part of the same fucked up phenomenon that makes people not like Stella.
*sigh* Fandom does have a misogynistic undercurrent, just like it has a racist undercurrent. That's a symptom of the world we live in, and it doesn't mean that people with those assumptions are OMG EVIL. It means that they should take a step back and try to examine their assumptions.
4) Eliot is (by far) the least interesting character. I don't dislike him; I just have no use for him. To each her own, but I do *not* understand why everyone loves him.
5) Eliot's hair is ugly, doesn't suit Christian Kane's face at all, and is also completely out of character for a guy who beats people up for a living. Frankly, you do *not* want hair that is going to get in your face and interfere with your field of vision when you are, again, beating people up for a living.
6) Yes, Parker's adorable, but there's a serious risk of her becoming a charicature of herself. We need to see more of her elite breaking-and-entering skills; we need to see more of her being *good* at her particular skill set and taking joy in it. I already miss that moment when we're introduced to her and she's so happy to be rapelling down the building. She has hidden her personal identity underneath her professional identity, and so she is most herself when she's being good at her job.
Regardless, we need to see her change in response to being a part of the team. I'm not saying she should grow towards *normal* because this is Parker we're talking about, just that there needs to be more going on here than the fact that she's... socially awkward doesn't quite cover it, but you know what I mean.
7) Hardison is (by far) the sanest character on the show. By. Far. And hell yes, I love him for that.
8) If a certain comm refers to Hardison as a "hot chocolate stud" again, I am going to have to hurt somebody.
NCIS
1) I don't think Gibbs is interesting. Period. A good part of this is that within the show itself, the narrative structure and the subtler aspects of the directing, all of it continually presents Gibbs as Right. Even when he makes a mistake, even when (objectively) he's crossed the line... he never gets called on it. Not really. Occasionally there's lip service but nothing more. He doesn't change. He has the same set of reactions to almost everything. *shrug* I'm not interested.
2) Abby has become a charicature of herself. I have next to no interest in her because of that.
3) The show is fun, but it's not particularly well-written. It doesn't do subtlety. When they get narratively ambitious there are plot holes big enough to drive a truck through.
4) For years I had next to no interest in Tony, but I just noticed that Michael Weatherly has started doing some incredibly subtle stuff that plays against the episode-to-episode selective amnesia common to a lot of shows. (For example, he was rightfully angry at Gibbs after Cloak and Dagger. He was also angry at Ziva, to a lesser extent, because she there was one piece of dialogue where she crossed the line.) Plus, in the office interplay where they're all picking on one another, he's drawing the short end of the stick more and more often.
4.5) If I were a writer on the show, I'd make it so #4 was leading to something, because I see Tony hitting a breaking point in the near future, but I don't have a any real faith in the writers on this show (see #3) so I'm not expecting anything. And if it happens, I don't expect it to be well done.
5) I've never disliked Ziva or Jen Shepard even a little bit. Both are strong. Both are flawed. Ziva does cross the line sometimes, but I like some ugliness in a character. Plus, I can't count how many times Gibbs or Tony has crossed the line, and most people let them get away with it. Yes, they misplayed Jen's storyarc in S4, but that's part of how they misplayed the *entire* S4 storyarc, which goes back to #3. (I also thought the way in which wrote Jen out of the show was bullshit.)
6) I don't dislike Kate, but I've never missed her either.
7) Regular and/or re-ocurring character body count. Female: Kate, Jen, Paula Cassidy, Agent Lee. Male: Agent Pacci (1.19) and Ari (bad guy). Correct me if I'm wrong.
Does anyone else see something wrong with that picture?
SGA
1) It was not a well-written show at all. We'd be here all day if I started to list all the huge missed opportunities. It's enough to make me wonder if the writers are actually familiar with science fiction.
(And that's not even getting in to the problems it had with race and gender, because those are fairly popular opinions.)
2) Joe Flanigan is a good actor. Sure not the best, but he's not bad by any means. He thought about Sheppard as a character--even if TPTB didn't let him do much with that--and he consistantly tried to play against the heroic womanizing type they tried to fit Sheppard into. I respect him for that.
3) The flip side of this is that David Hewlett is not that great of an actor. Don't get me wrong, I like him and he's not bad. He's got some fearless and fantastic comedic timing. He can make any amount of poor technobabble sound rather good and plausible. But I don't think he tries to go deep into the character's thought process. At least, I haven't seen him do it on SGA and they sure as hell threw McKay enough character stuff. --- edit --- on second thought, it's not that Hewlett is not that great, it's that he's been lazy as fuck with McKay.